Re: Adding [A]GPLv3+ code to Quake-based code base

[Isaac David <isacdaavid@isacdaavid.info>]

Aaron Wolf wrote :
> I can write a new copyleft license today that is explicitly 
> one-directionally compatible with the AGPLv3, and no change to AGPLv3 
> is needed for that to work.

the only scenarios i can conjure in which this would be possible are
trivial ones: one where your copyleft license is unequivocally (for
the courts) a one-to-one semantic copy of the AGPLv3, or what is more
likely, one where it's in effect a dual license (mutually exclusive
licenses, one of which is the AGPLv3). that's what CC-BY-SA-4.0 and
copyleft-next do.

this is because the AGPLv3, being a copyleft license itself, demands
that derived works carry exactly the same terms. no more, no less:

 > 5. Conveying Modified Source Versions.
 > [...] You must license the entire work, as a whole, under this
 > License [...]
 > [...] This License gives no permission to license the work in any
 > other way [...]

there's no other way a licensee combining one work under your
hypothetical copyleft license and another under the AGPLv3 can comply
with the AGPLv3. it would mean subjecting the AGPLv3 part to your
licence terms in addition to the AGPLv3. so until the second copyleft
license corresponds you, it wouldn't matter if your license were
explicitly accepting of it.

that said, it would be great to add an open-ended permission to
combine with future versions of the AGPL (or GPL), if you ever were to
write a new copyleft license. that way the authors of the AGPL could
decide whether to open the gates of compatibility, in which
directions, under what conditions, etc; allowing the existing body of
AGPLv3+ stuff to become retroactively compatible with all works under
your license in a single move.
-- 
Isaac David
GPG: 38D33EF29A7691134357648733466E12EC7BA943



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